As I’ve been mulling over the how and when to buy a MacBook, I’ve mentioned it to some folks at work and in our circle of friends. There’s a SSgt that works for me that has looked at me with complete disgust and asked, “Why would anyone buy a Mac?” (His primary reason for owning a PC? Gaming.) The short answer is, “They sold their product to me and they did it well.” The long answer follows should you care to read on.

First of all, let me rave, yet again, about Apple’s best little salesman ever invented. Yes, I’m going to gush about my iPod yet again. Why? Because dear readers, my iPod works better than any other piece of technology I’ve EVER owned. That’s EVER. It’s a handheld item that (gasp) fits my hand. I can use it one handed with my thumb on the scroll wheel or two handed with the finger from the hand not holding the pod, my choice, either way works. Unlike so many Windows based updates, when you get an update for iTunes, things have changed for the better. I can put a bunch of photos on my iPod, or choose not to. I can watch videos, or not. I can put TV shows on it, or not. I can add album art to alllllllllllll of the selections, or not. I get to decide exactly how it’s going to look and act and I don’t have to go digging through menu after submenu after submenu to find out how to do it. I don’t have to research online for 45 freaking minutes to find out that once again, I need to download some form of powertools or another to configure it the way I want it to look. It works. It worked out of the box and it’s worked ever since.

Quicktime: Once upon a time, I hated Quicktime. Every time it autoloaded it’s way onto my computer for some sort of educational software we had for Boyo, it managed to cludge things up. It would open but not run the video or the sound would be messed up. These days, I’d rather run every video thing via Quicktime than WinMedia or RealTime. It’s smoother. It loads faster. The sound is cleaner. Clean sound is becoming more and more important to me. My hearing is NOT what it used to be. Living on the ends of and around flightlines has something to do with it I’m sure.

The commercials. On any given day as soon as I get out of uniform, I may not be as young as the Mac guy, but I feel and dress like the Mac guy. Not a good reason for dropping a grand or two. So let’s talk about the earlier commercials. I’ve got to buy a lot of additional software whenever I want to do what I do on my PC Laptop. The Mac comes with all the basic software I need to play with photos, music and video. That’s what I mostly do on my laptop. Windows is getting ready to upgrade, which tells me that I’m going to have to upgrade every damn piece of software in the next couple of years. There’s my photo editor, my sound editor, my video editor. Sigh. If I buy a Mac, I get the latest of everything for that system and I don’t have to worry a bit about it. I can upgrade to more powerful tools in increments instead of all or nothing. That’s just HUGE in my book.

And while we’re talking about software, let’s talk about all the CRAP that comes installed on your Gateway or Dell or HP as it comes out of the box. How many HOURS did it take you to clean out the crap software, the 30-day trial software, the “who uses this?” software the last time you bought a new PC? If you’re like me, you’re still finding stuff that you never use, taking up space, taking up RAM, taking up your time.

Mac Users. You know who I’m talking about. Them. They’re so smug. They walk around as if they don’t have a care in the world. Ask a Mac user what they think of their computer and they will gush forth expressions of purest love, dedication, and devotion. You can hear the arias in their heads as they sing the praises of their computers. And that my friends is my primary reason for buying a Mac. Mac Users L.O.V.E. their machines. You just don’t see that sort of dedication to a product anywhere else. They walk around like they know something the rest of us are missing.

When I was down in The Springs, I worked with a couple of Marine Comm Officers. I worked with more when I was out in Hawaii. Let me tell you, when it comes to Comm, no one does it better or smarter than our USMC. You wouldn’t think so just in passing, but then again, they NEED good, secure, stable comm. Every one of the really smart guys, the ones who solved problems, the ones who had their brains wrapped around what the net was doing for our military? They all had Macs and could not figure out why the HELL the military wouldn’t switch. They also preached, to all who would listen, the benefits of Mac ownership. They all felt like the change was finally coming, slowly, surely, but they were pretty sure that it was coming. More people would be buying Macs and soon.

And you know what…they were right again. More folks are giving up the PC headache and are switching. It’s not just longhairs and science geeks buying them anymore. They’re going mainstream. The iPod sold more folks than just me.

So that’s why I’m switching to a Mac laptop instead of waiting for the new Windows OS and getting a faster PC Laptop. I think I’m making the best decision and getting the most bang for my buck.

I also really really want to be that smug about the equipment I’m using.